


Goodnight Moon

by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz, IncendiaGlacies



Series: The Roommates AU [14]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Childhood Memories, Fluff, Gideon has always been momming people, Goodnight Moon, We are card carrying members of the Rosalind Franklin Deserved More Credit society, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 15:20:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15464316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz/pseuds/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz, https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncendiaGlacies/pseuds/IncendiaGlacies
Summary: While straightening things up, Lily ends up finding a box her father left behind of her childhood things. The rest of the roommates and Rip join her in taking a peek inside to find a very special book.





	Goodnight Moon

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since this verse got an update, but we've been focusing on the amazing Legends of SHIELD verse a lot (if you haven't read it, you should. Not to toot my horn too much, but it's fantastic). But this week inspiration smacked me in the face for a fic in the verse we thought was going to be written later. Instead, we're throwing it up here now! Hope you all love it as much as we do!
> 
> We don't own Arrow, The Flash, or Legends (and it's in my best interest not to or I'll angst it all up) or Goodnight Moon.

“Ugh, Dad!”

Gideon and Rip turned towards Lily’s door. The latter was over at the apartment to help Gideon make something for a potluck the museum was having so she wouldn’t be regulated to bringing silverware once again. Setting down the spatula, Gideon moved towards Lily’s room.

“Lily?” she called out. “Is everything alright?”

The door opened, revealing Lily with a long-suffering look on her face. “Remember when we were moving in and Mom and Dad came to help out?”

Gideon nodded. “Yes, and I’m glad they did. If they and Donna hadn’t, we would have been unpacking for much longer.”

“Dad brought along a box of stuff from when I was a kid, and I told him I didn’t need it,” Lily explained as Caitlin sidled up beside Rip to join the conversation. “I was cleaning some stuff up that I never got around to unpacking and I found the box still there.”

“Maybe he forgot to take it?” Caitlin suggested.

“Possibly, but I doubt it. I don’t even know what’s in it. All I have to go off is the label.”

“How about we take a look then?” Gideon suggested, walking into the room. “Rip, can we take a break?”

“The cupcakes are in the oven, so yes,” Rip nodded. “We’ll have to let them cool before we can put the icing on them, otherwise they’ll melt. Am I allowed to join the viewing of Lily’s childhood?”

“Yes, you can come snoop,” Lily told him, sticking her head out the door. “Hey, Felicity? Want to come see potentially embarrassing pictures of me as a kid?”

“Hang on, I’m coming!”

               Felicity ran into the room just as Lily opened the flaps of the box and began to examine the contents. There were a fair amount of pictures of her throughout the years, including a Halloween costume of a seven year old Lily dressed as an atom that Felicity couldn’t stop giggling over. Some of her childhood artwork was also in there, leaving Rip to ask Lily how her child self always drew the mouth outside of the face. Caitlin whistled as she flipped through a copy of Lily’s fifth grade science project paper. Gideon smiled as she uncovered the photos of Lily with her and Ronnie, remembering how she never used to smile for photos until she knew for certain the Steins weren’t sending her back.

“Hey, look at this,” Felicity interrupted, passing Lily a photo of a Rosalind Franklin Halloween costume that all the girls had approved of, so she could pull out a book. “ _Goodnight Moon_.”

Lily smiled. “That was one of my favorite books to hear at bedtime. I never got tired of listening to Mom and Dad read it.”

“I loved it too,” Felicity nodded.

“Same here,” Caitlin agreed.

“I did too,” Gideon blushed a little. “I asked the older kids to read it to me when I was little. When I got older, I’d read it to the younger ones who didn’t get fostered yet.”

“That was sweet of you,” Rip told her. “I used to read this to Jonas when he was a baby. I haven’t seen it in ages.”

Gideon took the book from Felicity. “Maybe we can give this a reread?”

“Only if you’re the one who reads it,” Caitlin grinned.

She was given a bump against the shoulder from Gideon. “Well, if you insist.”

Rip and the rest of the roommates gathered around her as she started to read, all of them relieving the memories they had from the book.

* * *

 

_Gideon had just put on her pajamas and was about to crawl into bed when she heard footsteps outside her door. When she looked around, she caught sight of blonde hair disappearing around the frame._

_“I see you,” Gideon called out, not feeling like playing games. Yet again, she’d been passed up by some potential parents and was now without a roommate again. “Come on out.”_

_Slowly, a little blonde girl crept into her room. She wore a sleep shirt so big it was more like a nightgown._

_“Ava? What are you doing here?”_

_“Can you read me a story?”_

_“I thought the little kids already got a story read to them.”_

_“Yeah, but it was a fairy tale,” Ava huffed. “I don’t like those. Besides, you read really good.”_

_“I read very well,” Gideon corrected._

_She looked over at her nightstand and pulled out the bag with the few books she had in it. Finally, she picked up the well-worn copy of Goodnight Moon._

_“Well then, come on,” Gideon sat on the bed, patting the space beside her. “Sit with me.”_

_Ava scampered over and crawled up onto the bed with her, snuggling up close to Gideon as she opened the book._

_“Goodnight Moon,” Gideon read. “In the great green room, there was a telephone. And a red balloon. And a picture of the cow jumping over the moon...”_

* * *

_“And there were three little bears sitting on chairs,” Donna read to Felicity. “And two little kittens. Do you see them?”_

_Felicity nodded, curling closer to her mom. Her father was away on a trip, so it was the two of them for the whole week. Last night, she had stayed up as long as she could for her mom to come home so they could read Goodnight Moon together. Unfortunately, Donna had arrived home from her job long after Felicity feel asleep. To make up for it, they were now reading the book in the morning just after breakfast._

_“More, Mommy,” she pleaded._

_Donna smiled as she brushed her hair back from her face. “And a pair of mittens. And a little toy house. And a young mouse.”_

_“Ewwwwwww. Mice are yucky.”_

_“They are,” Donna nodded.  “But this is a nice mouse, so we like him.”_

_“Okay. Can you keep reading now?”_

* * *

 

_“And a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush,” Caitlin’s father pointed to each object on the page._

_“It look like oatmeal,” Caitlin giggled as she pointed at the picture._

_“It does, doesn’t it?” Her dad laughed before continuing. “And a quiet old lady who was whispering ‘hush’.”_

_“Shhhhhhh.”_

_“Uh-huh, that’s right. Goodnight room.”_

_“Goodnight room!” Caitlin repeated, glad that Daddy had agreed to read her the book since Mommy had been too busy working._

_“Goodnight moon.”_

_“Goodnight moon!” she said, not knowing that her time with her father was going to run out sooner than she wanted, and that when it did, she would read the book one last time and remember the good times._

_“Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.”_

_“Goodnigh’ cow,” Caitlin yawned, laying against her dad’s chest. Her eyes felt heavier now._

_He looked down at her. “Maybe we should call it a night.”_

_“No, Daddy,” she shook her head. “Finish the story.”_

_“Okay then.”_

* * *

 

_Lily was sandwiched between her parents, studying the book intently as she listened to the words._

_“Goodnight light,” Martin said, running his finger beneath the words when he read them for Lily’s sake._

_The little girl started to lean over towards him to get a closer look. Clarissa looked over at her husband with a smile. Lily already seemed to be her father’s daughter in so many ways. Her curiosity about reading and her stubbornness to read the same book almost every night were small ways that showed that._

_“And the red balloon,” Clarissa continued as Lily nudged her._

_Martin went next again. “Goodnight bears.”_

_Lily’s eyes started to droop, but then snapped open again. She loved the story too much and she wouldn’t fall asleep until it was over._

_“Goodnight chairs,” she heard her mother say._

_“Goodnight kittens,” Lily said quietly, recognizing the word ‘goodnight’ and remembering the pattern of the last few sentences._

_Her parents perked up and praised her for saying the next words before continuing with the book._

* * *

 

_Rip adjusted his hold on Jonas as he turned the page in the book. It had been his turn to go and check on his son when he and Miranda had woken up to his screams. He had been a little hungry and Rip was thankful Miranda already had prepped some bottles to be heated up ahead of time for this situation. As Jonas was finishing eating, Rip had pulled a book off the shelf and had begun to read it._

_As they got closer to the end, Jonas yawned, his tiny fist swinging out against Rip’s chest._

_“And goodnight mittens,” Rip said softly. “Goodnight clocks.”_

_Jonas’s eyelids blinked slowly. He looked so calm compared to how he’d been wailing earlier in the night._

_“And goodnight socks,” the father wiggled his son’s bare foot a little bit, but it didn’t bother Jonas. “Goodnight little house. And goodnight mouse.”_

_Rip glanced down to see Jonas was asleep now. He smiled and brushed a finger against the soft downy hair starting to grow on his scalp._

_“Goodnight, Jonas,” he whispered and then finished the story, even if his son couldn’t even hear it._

* * *

 

_Gideon held back a yawn and blinked her eyes. She was ready to fall asleep herself._

_“And goodnight socks,” she murmured, bringing a hand up to rub her eyes. “Goodnight little house.”_

_“And goodnight mouse,” Rip chimed in as he entered the room, a smile on his face even though Gideon knew he was as tired as she was._

_“Hey,” Gideon smiled back at him as he walked over and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Everything okay with Jonas’s homework?”_

_“He’s got it now,” Rip told her. “But don’t let me interrupt story time.”_

_“We won’t,” Gideon looked back down at the book. “Goodnight comb, and goodnight brush.”_

_“Goodnight nobody,” Rip read over her shoulder. “Goodnight mush. And goodnight to the old lady whispering hush.”_

_“Goodnight stars.”_

_“Goodnight air.”_

_“Goodnight noises everywhere,” they finished together._

_Gideon looked down at where her baby daughter was nestled beside her. She was fast asleep in the green jumper that she loved so much. Standing up, Gideon passed the baby to her husband, who murmured how much he loved both of them as he placed their daughter in the crib. Gideon picked up the copy of Goodnight Moon that Lily and Ray had given them at the baby shower and set it on top of the nightstand._

_“I think she’s going to end up loving this book as much as we do,” Gideon said softly as they crept out of the room._

_“Well, you do read it to her almost every night,” Rip reminded her. “It wouldn’t surprise me if that ends up happening.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo how about that glimpse of the future?
> 
> Reviews and Kudos spur us on, so leave plenty to tell us what you thought!


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